Estimating global precipitation is vital for managing water-related disasters, yet it is often challenging due to sparse rain gauge data in certain areas. To improve these predictions, Assistant Professor Yuka Muto and Professor Shunji Kotsuki, a research duo from Chiba University, developed a new tool using the Local Ensemble Transform Kalman Filter technique for rain gauge observations and reanalysis precipitation. Their method offers promising results for improving disaster management and sustainable water supply strategies.

A paper published in SCIENCE CHINA Earth Sciences revealed that, the geographical distribution of the temperate savanna on the sandy lands of eastern China at the first time by integrating very high-resolution unmanned aerial vehicle and satellite imagery.

In a paper published in National Science Review, Prof. Xu proposes a new term "viral aggregation" to more accurately describe the accumulation of lysis products in the soil environment. In addition, he advocates that incorporating soil viruses into existing MCP and MinCP models, namely virus-MCP and virus-MinCP, can substantially improve our understanding of global carbon cycle.

The intensity of offshore wind farm operational noise was significantly lower compared to pile driving noise. By employing a sound propagation model and referring to established noise exposure metrics, we estimated an impact zone of 12.8 m for fishes imposed by the pile driving noise. For the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins, the permanent (PTS) and temporary threshold shift (TTS) zones were predicted to be 32.4 m and 580.9 m, respectively.

An Osaka Metropolitan University researcher conducted a survey on the use of private wells during the 2018 Western Japan floods in Kure City, Hiroshima Prefecture, which was affected by water supply disruptions.